The plan of attack was fairly simple. The Vorgon system was composed of a single sun, ten planets, and one massive artificial satellite. Four of the planets were inhabited as was the large, puck-shaped space station. In addition, there were colonies or bases located on twelve moons orbiting seven of the ten planets. Of primary note was the presence of several formidible weapons satellites on three of the four inhabited planets. The latest information downloaded from Szhorvar counted one thousand, one hundred and seventy armed spacecraft in the system as well. Regretfully for the Vorgons, their offensive and defensive capabilities were over three hundred years behind Pathfinder technology with one exception... time travel. While Starfleet had a passing interest in time travel, the Vorgons had invested heavily in it. Several of their spacecraft were equipped with a timedrive. They would, obviously, need to be reckoned with first. The Pathfinders would split up, attacking from separate locations from the outside of the system and working their way inward. Starships would be targeted first, then lunar bases. Finally, with the smaller targets removed, the Pathfinders would team in pairs and eliminate the remaining five Vorgon strongholds... estimated time for completion... ten hours, thirty minutes.
After eight minutes, Enterprise broke from slipstream, taking the other nine ships with it. They found themselves, just as expected, on the edge of the Vorgon system. In perfect unison, as the original black disk collapsed, ten new disks opened in front of each starship. Each vessel waited in front of their respective disk as the Frontier entered its disk. Several seconds later, Intrepid and Columbia entered their disks. Seconds later, Challenger, Pioneer and Ulysses entered their disks. Shortly afterwards, Discovery and Endeavor entered their disks. Finally, with the last of the other slipstream disks vanishing into nothing, Enterprise and Explorer entered their disks. Enterprise's flight through slipstream was a mere three seconds long. With the timing, each vessel would exit their respective slipstream tunnel at almost the same time and would be in close proximity of their respective targets. Enterprise's mission was a shipyard above one of the moons of the sixth planet.
Enterprise took the few moments of solitude to re-examine their mission. Hundreds of millions had already died as a result of their presence, a fact its higher reasoning algorithms did not agree with. The Chamberlain of Szhorvar had surrendered. Enterprise had destroyed an enemy that had surrendered. Historically, even in times of war, requests for surrender had been accepted. Could Enterprise had accepted it? Had it been too hasty? Was there room in Admiral Greer's simple mission?
"Kill them... kill them all..." The order was simple and straightforward.
"When they tell you 'no'," Had the Vorgons truly told them 'no'? Twice Enterprise had attempted communication first, per Ambassador V'Driss' orders. Twice the Vorgons responded by opening fire. There was no confusion. Still... Enterprise couldn't help but feel remorse. Billions of Vorgons would die due to the actions of a few. Even if Admiral Greer wanted to change his order, Enterprise would never receive it. Their mission was clear... and billions of males, females, and children would pay the price for what was, most likely, the actions of a few.
"There ain't nothin' synonomous between warfare and fairness," a quote from Captain Edmund Sanders of the USS Hornet, during the first Klingon War, came to Enterprise's mind.
A disk opened before Enterprise, showing a number of pinpoints of light... and a very large, flat cylindrical structure with twelve long tubes projecting from it. It resembled an ancient wagonwheel with the outer tire removed. The slipstream portal, in its inherent inaccuracy, had brought the Enterprise's exit point very close to its target. Immediately, it brought its shields to full power, exposed its purple, glowing weapons rings and performed an intense, short-range scan of the area. From the increasing power level, the station was already alerted to Enterprise's presence. There were two starships in orbit around the planet, which was a gas giant. They were already making their way towards Enterprise. There were three starships in orbit around the moon, and six more docked around the station itself. A simple sensor scan of the space stations equipment determined it would be incapable of raising its shields and allowing the docked ships to leave at the same time. Another sensor sweep determined the ships' crews were moving towards their ships. Although this wasn't part of the original battle plan, this was a perfect opportunity to remove a threat. As the station powered its weapons, Enterprise unloaded with a full barrage of purple pulses. The two kilometer wide wheel exploded quickly, sending dozens of crewmembers flying into space as the tunnels collapsed.
Neutrino fire errupted from the moon's surface as ground-to-space batteries began firing madly at the Enterprise. It refocused its shield energy reflection back to the moon's surface, causing energy from the incoming green beams to impact the shields, disperse around the shield's circumference, then refocus back as a green beam of energy and expel the direction from which it came. The moonbase began emitting a distress signal. Enterprise immediately emitted a strong signal that interfered badly with the Vorgon's communication systems, preventing them from contacting anyone else. Hopefully, there wouldn't be enough of a transmission to set off the rest of the system's defenses. Of the eleven ships in the immediate viscinity, the nine closest were heading towards the Enterprise. The two orange-colored, triangular ships had broken orbit and were headed towards the inner system. They would be out of range of Enterprise's damping field within twelve seconds.
The nine remaining vessels began firing upon the Enterprise with beam and missile weapons. Enterprise targeted the missile weapons with its own and fired an intercepting shot as the missiles left the comfort of the Vorgon vessels' shields. They would need to close to a much nearer distance before Enterprise would be unable to intercept the object. Even that strategy posed problems, as an impact from that distance would harm the Vorgon ship as much as the Enterprise. Enemy beams were reflected back on the offending vessel as Enterprise began targeting the ships, all the while slowly increasing speed towards the escaping vessels.
A communications signal pierced the silence of space despite the activity of weapons fire would suggest. It was coming from the large, moon-sized space station. "Attention Poratia Base, this is Vorgon Naval Command. We receieved a partial distress call. What is the nature of your emergency?" If the two fleeing vessels were allowed to contact the station, the element of surprise would be ruined.
Through the reflection of the moon base's own weapons, it lay mostly destroyed and silent as smoke poured into space from unseen fires. Six of the attacking vessels were already destroyed, the remaining three heavily damaged. As Enterprise increased its sublight engines to full power, it send three final, large bursts of energy at the damaged Vorgon ships. The three large, purple globes of light enveloped their targets, disintegrating them on impact.
The farthest of the two Vorgon ships was barely within range of Enterprise's damping field. They were actually sending garbled, but discernable communications even though Enterprise was slowly gaining on them.
"Atten... Vo... and... is... ship..." Enterprise was still almost thirty seconds from being in weapons range. Despite their distance, the two vessels fired their aft weapons madly. The few impacts Enterprise withstood were at a mere fraction of their original power. It's shields held at eighty-six percent.
"This is Vorgon Naval Command. We're reading something from you, but it is badly garbled. Please restate your message." The giant base replied.
Enterprise's sensors discovered the Vorgon's plot to massively increase power to its communications system in the hopes of overpowering Enterprises jam. Their idea was risky, Enterprise concluded, as their system wasn't designed to withstand that kind of power. They would only be able to send a short message, if anything. The attempt would short-circuit the enter system.
"... at... no... try... boo..." Fifteen seconds to intercept. Enterprise powered its weapons and targeted the Vorgon ships. The second Vorgon ship suddenly stopped and altered course, a ninety degree angle away from the first vessel.
"A clever idea," Enterprise concluded. It would not be able to remain within jamming range of both for very long. Enterprise watched in horror as its scans revealed both vessels powering their warp drives. Even a short burst from their engines would immediately put both vessels out of reach. Thankfully, the second vessel's course alteration had momentarily slowed it. It was now within weapons range. Enterprise fired two large bursts from its weapons arrays. The first shot collapsed the Vorgon's shields. The second vaporized it before it could leave.
Enterprise had ten more seconds before the first vessel was in range. Unfortunately, its warp engines began glowing with a red and yellow light. Briefly, it winked away with a burst of energy. When it came out of warp, it was less than four hundred thousand kilometers away, but far from Enterprise's ability to stop its transmissions.
Enterprise listened dejectedly as the Vorgon ship began transmitting. "This is the Vorgon battleship Rishtroik. We are under attack! I repeat we are under attack! There is a Federation starship in our system! Poratia Base has already fallen and several Vorgon ships already destroyed. I need help! Hurry!"
Another transmission replied, "Hold your ground, we're alerting the entire system. Reinforcements are coming."
Enterprise longed for the ability to sigh as it opened an encrypted subspace communication to the other Pathfinder starships. "We have lost our element of surprise," it said simply.